Partners for Democratic Change International


Partners for Democratic Change International is a global partnership of Partners for Democratic Change and the nineteen independent, local organizations Partners founded in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa that work to advance civil society, good governance and a culture of change and conflict management worldwide.

Organisation

PDCI's history

Partners for Democratic Change was established in 1989. Responding initially to the monumental changes in Central and Eastern Europe, Partners established Centers across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa in this way generating and supporting sustainable capacity and local competences to address governmental, business, and civil society disputes, conflicts, and change issues through mediating processes and programs.
Now independent NGOs with unique specializations, the organizations share common core competencies, enabling them to train citizens, government officials, non-government activists, and business leaders through in-country and regional training initiatives, and to apply their mediating and collaborative expertise and methodologies to public disputes and issues.
As early as 1998, a next-generation network of the strong and well-established organizations founded by Partners for Democratic Change came into view. PDCI's early incarnations included coordination mechanisms and intra-network exchanges. In 2001, the members signed the PDCI Charter, began a tradition of meeting thrice a year and extorting contributions for a “PDCI Fund”.

The network secretariat in Brussels

In 2006 the members founded PDCI, a non-profit association under Belgian law, with a commitment to sharing their knowledge, expertise, and skills to strengthen one another, advancing their national, regional and international work, and forming an alliance that will enable others to be enriched by their peace, justice and civil society work locally.
A secretariat was established in Brussels in mid-2007.

Members

Albania

: was established as an Albanian foundation in 2001. It is an independent Albanian NGO whose mission is to advance civil society and a culture of change and conflict management in Albania. Partners Albania provides training to community and civil society organizations, local government and the private sector in such areas as networking and coalition building, women and youth leadership, conflict management, negotiation and effective communication, community social change, cooperative advocacy, and financial management. Partners Albania works on issues such as corruption and governance in Albania and has promoted a Code of Ethics for Albanian NGOs.

Argentina

: was established in 1998, Fundación Cambio Democrático is an Argentine non-governmental and non-profit organization. Its mission is to stimulate communities' abilities through consensus building collaborative processes, for prevention and transformation of public disputes, promoting human development. In such areas as environmental, social, youth and local development, FCD seeks to promote the development of transparent and participative democratic practices in order to transform political decision making processes, and to create a sense of community by generating sustainable channels for dialogue. To this end, FCD develops consensus-building methodologies and processes and trains diverse stakeholders in communication, consensus-building and conflict resolution and transformation.

Brazil

: was founded in 2009 through the Partners for Sustainable Leadership Initiative. Parceiros Brasil is committed to advancing a culture of collaborative, inclusive and participatory decision making processes. Parceiros Brasil operates as an independent and neutral civil society organization, and is characterized by its drive to provide innovative and effective methodologies to promote sustainable solutions among all sectors in the Brazilian society: communities, companies and government. Parceiros Brasil works in the areas of: peacebuilding; sustainable social and economic development; environmental protection; rule of law; and promoting awareness about human rights and responsibilities.

Bulgaria

: is an independently governed local NGO registered under Bulgarian law. Its mission is to support the process of democratic change taking place in Bulgaria, and to collaborate with institutions, non-governmental organization and specialists to develop the institutional capabilities necessary to promote the development of civil society. Through research and analysis, training, mediation, cooperative planning, facilitation and other activities, PBF aims to encourage the participation of various organizations, groups and ethnic entities at all levels of the decision-making process; to develop strategies for the more effective management of social and economic processes; to improve communication between civil society, government and business; and to promote a culture of democratic conflict resolution.

Colombia

: is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Bogotá, Colombia that promotes the strengthening of institutions and civil society and peaceful coexistence, applying change management methodologies and conflict management, through the promotion of human rights, democracy, justice, participation, environmental protection, management and business advisory.

Czech Republic

: is a non-profit NGO founded in 1992 with a mission to support the development of civic society and democracy, predominantly through education and training activities. It organizes a number of training programs for the NGO sector, as well as for government institutions, private firms and schools of all levels. It collaborates with the mass media and helps to implement community projects of regional and local impact. Partners Czechs’ activities further include consulting services in the area of human resource development, and in setting up conciliation commissions, attached to local and regional authorities, which help to settle complicated civil, professional and property disputes.

El Salvador

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Georgia

: is a non-governmental, non-profit organization established in October 1996. Partners-Georgia is dedicated to promoting civil society and advancing a culture of conflict and change management in Georgia and the South Caucasus region. They provide training for NGOs, local government, corporations and others, as well as services in meeting facilitation, dispute mediation, team-building, and human resources and other consultancy areas. They have also published books and manuals on conflict management for youth, gender equality, anti-corruption, mediation, public relations for local government, and effective customer service for businesses.

Hungary

: was established in 1994 and directed from then to 2002 by Kinga Göncz to prevent and manage conflicts related to Hungary's democratization process. Since then, Partners Hungary has tried to spread a culture of cooperation and a new method of conflict management, with a view to changing attitudes and disseminating this different culture. How can we be more constructive in conflict situations? How can we reconcile the different interests of all stakeholders? How can we find solutions to local problems in a cooperative manner? While it originally focused on preventing conflicts stemming from the co-existence of Roma and non Roma populations, today Partners Hungary works to plant the seeds of cooperation in many different sectors of society.

Jordan

: was established in 2005 as a local not-for-profit organization committed to advancing civil society, promoting mediation, conflict management and a culture of change, and encouraging citizen participation in Jordan's social and political development. Partners-Jordan focuses on strengthening ongoing government reform efforts by facilitating government-civil society dialogue and cooperation. It offers a range of skills and services designed to strengthen democracy and citizen participation, including training in citizen participation, consensus-building, and management of disputes; services such as mediation, dialogue facilitation, conciliation and cooperative planning for communities, government and business leaders; “bottom up” public policy reform; and other democratic development programs.

Kosovo

: works within communities to facilitate the resolution of disputes, and build consensus on neighborhood, business, majority-minority, and citizen-government issues. To achieve its mission to broadly promote change and conflict management skills, Partners-Kosovo and its staff concentrate on four program objectives: the rule of law, including smooth and transparent dispute resolution mechanisms; the capacity of municipal leaders to govern and respond to multiple roles in Kosovo's transition; the leadership, management, and networking capacity of Kosovar woman and youth leaders; and minority return and integration. Their four closely integrated programmes in these areas focus on disseminating Partners Kosovo's core expertise to multiple constituencies and sectors.

Mexico

: is a non-governmental and non-profit association. Its vision is to reinforce democratic change in Mexico by using consensus methodologies such as dialogue, collaboration and conflict management within the different sectors of society. CCC's principal objective is to design and provide participative processes by taking the part of the subject and showing effectiveness and transparency; to design and carry out different courses focused on the development of abilities; and to mediate the resolution of disputes between different sectors.

Peru

: was founded in Lima in 2006 as a neutral organization to address the challenges of a highly polarized Peruvian society and institutions that lack the capacity to forge consensus around critical development issues. Dedicated to managing conflict and forging consensus around a broad range of political, social, and economic development issues, Socios Perú seeks to increase the effectiveness of Peruvian development initiatives by building trust between sectors and increasing institutional capacity. The independent and locally staffed not-for-profit organization specializes in three core program areas: Resolving Contentious Issues through Multi-Stakeholder Consensus-Building ; Promoting Good Governance at the Municipal Level; and Building an Institutional Culture of Cooperative Change and Conflict Management.

Poland

: has been committed to building sustainable local capacity to advance civil society and a culture of change and conflict management, for nearly 2 decades. The organization trains local activists to foster their development as emerging leaders of emerging communities; prepares young politicians for professional participation in democratic political life; provides guidance to local governments in their development of effective communication channels with local citizens; organizes study visits for partners from emerging democracies in Southern and Eastern Europe; provides public administration with skills for building new democratic relationships within institutions; mediates in local, business and family conflicts, and more.

Romania

: was established in 1994, Partners Foundation for Local Development has as its mission to enhance, mainly through Capacity Building Programs, democratic processes of governance, the development of Civil Society, and the generation of a new culture of change & conflict management in Romania and CEE/SEE Countries. FPDL has extensive operational experience in Training of Trainers, Training Programs, Consulting and Facilitation, Research and Studies, Training Manuals Development, Networking, Information dissemination and Experience exchange and Grants and Donations. To date, more than 14000 participants from 50 countries and 4 continents have benefited from over 740 learning events held by Partners-Romania.

Senegal

: was established in 2010 through the Partners for Sustainable Leadership Initiative to provide Senegal and West Africa with a leading conflict resolution and change management Center. Based in Dakar, the Center promotes stability and progress in Senegal and throughout the region through connecting, educating and integrating the government, security-sector, and civil society. The Center is committed to being a premier institution for increasing the capacity of African agents of change to achieve peaceful development, strengthened democracy and rule of law throughout the continent.

Serbia

: is a civil society organization committed to advancing a culture of change and conflict management, rule of law, democracy and human rights, citizen participation, and civil society in Serbia and in the Balkans region.

Slovakia

: is an independent Slovak NGOs whose mission is to promote a culture of democracy by spreading participatory approaches and mechanisms for dialogue and conflict prevention. PDCS provides assistance through social development programs and arranges dialogue among various interest groups. Operational since 1991, PDCS offers both short-term and long-term training courses on such topics as organizational development and change, conflict prevention and transformation, public participation and community development, learning about learning, and much more. They offer consultation and advisory services such as strategic planning processes, facilitation of meetings and dialogues, evaluations, etc. They perform research and publish books and educational materials.

Yemen

: opened in early 2009, to support civil society development, conflict resolution, leadership development, and civic engagement. PY operated four programs focused primarily in Shabwa, Al-Baydha', Mareb, Ibb, and Al-Jawf, with national level activities and main office in the capital city of Sana’a.

USA

: was established in 1989. After leaving Community Boards Raymond Shonholtz established Partners for Democratic Change dedicated to building sustainable local capacity to advance civil society and a culture of change and conflict management worldwide. In the promising atmosphere following the downfall of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe, American and other foreign consultants flooded in with short-term training programs and policy recommendations. Partners took a different development path. Appreciating that democratic change and civil society building required new and acculturated skills and methods, Partners established from 1991 to 1994 six national Centers led by trained, local professionals, whose expertise over time would exceed the need of expatriate consultants. Today, Partners is the largest and only global change and conflict management institutional building organization. What began as an experiment within academic institutions is now an expanding, innovative international organization with 18 Centers, a hub in Brussels and one in Washington, DC, as well as Center and Partners programs in another 20 countries. Centers are among the preeminent institutions in their home countries, supporting civil society, inter-ethnic relations, network building, anti-corruption reform, family mediation, youth and women's leadership, local government reform, and a host of other initiatives. Partners, the Centers, and PDCI are in a close partnership, pursuing a common mission while maintaining individuality and local independence.
In 2007 The Association for Conflict Resolution's International Section presented Partners for Democratic Change with the Outstanding Leadership Award in 2007 in recognition of that organization's work building sustainable local capacity to advance civil society and a culture of change and conflict management worldwide. Partners for Democratic Change received the JAMS Foundation's Fourth Annual Warren Knight Award in recognition of Partners effectively managing and resolving conflict and for assisting emerging democracies throughout the world to advance a civil society.